Nick Begich

Nick Begich 1961

Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Begich (born 6. April 1932 in Eveleth , Minnesota , missing 16th October 1972 in Alaska ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . Between 1971 and 1972 he represented the state of Alaska in the US House of Representatives .

Family, education and work

Nick Begich attended schools in his home in northeast Minnesota. He graduated from St. Cloud State University and then from the University of Minnesota , the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of North Dakota . From 1952 to 1959 he worked as a high school teacher and moved with his family from Minnesota to Alaska in 1957. He performed some tasks in the school administration. Between 1959 and 1968, Begich was a school councilor in Fort Richardson , Alaska. At times he was a lecturer at the University of Alaska Anchorage . From 1968 he worked in the construction business, building and managing apartment blocks in Anchorage.

Nicholas Begich was married to Pegge Begich, who unsuccessfully applied for Alaska's seat in the US House of Representatives in 1984 and 1986 . Today she lives in retirement in Nevada . The couple had six children, including their son Mark , born in 1962, who represented the State of Alaska in the US Senate from January 2009 to January 2015 . Her son Tom (* 1960) is a member of the Alaska Senate . His brother Joe Begich belonged to the mining region Iron Range temporarily the Minnesota House of Representatives on.

Political career

Begich became a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1963 and 1971 he was a member of the Alaska Senate for them . In the election to the US House of Representatives in 1968 he was defeated by 45.8 percent of the vote to the incumbent Howard Wallace Pollock , who defended his seat in the US House of Representatives with 54.2 percent. Two years later, Begich won with 55.1 percent of the vote against Frank Murkowski and represented the state of Alaska as a member of Congress from January 3, 1971 .

death

Begich's Cenotaph in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC

In 1972 Begich ran for re-election to Congress. In the election campaign he was supported, among others, by Hale Boggs , a congressman from Louisiana . On October 16, 1972, Begich and Boggs flew from Anchorage to Juneau during the election campaign . In addition to the two politicians and the pilot, Russel Brown, another of Begich's campaign workers, was on board. The machine disappeared without a trace on the way. There is still no trace of the occupants and the wreck. On December 19, 1972, Nick Begich was officially pronounced dead. In the meantime the election had taken place in November and he had been re-elected to Congress with 56.2 percent of the vote. The choice was irrelevant due to the circumstances described. There were rumors and speculations that the disappearance of the machine might have been an attack on MP Boggs, since he was a member of the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination attempt on President John F. Kennedy in 1963-64 . Unlike most members of this commission, Boggs did not believe in the lone perpetrator theory and continued to investigate what led the supporters of some conspiracy theories to suspect an assassination attempt.

Web links

• Nick Begich in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

supporting documents

1. ↑ Begich, Pegge. In: Our Campaigns.
2. ^ Dave Frank: New Alaskan senator warm on Carson City. In: Nevada Appeal , Nov. 21, 2008.
3. ↑ Senator Tom Begich. In: The Alaska State Legislature ; Linda Tyssen: Joe Begich is still giving the Iron Range some color. In: Mesabi Daily News , September 9, 2017; Begich, Joseph R. In: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. See also Begich family of Anchorage, Alaska. In: Political Graveyard.
4. ^ Begich, Nicholas J. In: Our Campaigns.